


Skeletons In His Closet

by DilynAliceBlake



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: M/M, More suspense, Sadness, Suspense, more sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 16:31:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8585734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DilynAliceBlake/pseuds/DilynAliceBlake
Summary: Drip.  Drip.  Drip."It's a cave!" young Hamilton exclaimed, and Thomas woke up sick to his stomach.A suspense/horror story aiming for a twilight zone feel.





	1. Chapter 1

James Madison had been friends with Thomas Jefferson for perhaps three years. Long enough to know that the man was actually a ball of anxiety and superstition, but not long enough to have figured out why.

  
They had been officially together one year, and just gotten an apartment together when James started to wonder if maybe he hadn't made the best choice in partner.

  
"Line the doors with salt," Thomas said while hanging nails from strings over the front entry. "Windows, too."

  
"We don't have enough."

  
Thomas started muttering, and the nails fell from his hands, for how they shook.

  
He tore a black card from his wallet and practically shoved James from their new apartment.

  
"Go get some. Buy out the store if you have to. Salt. Go."

  
"Right, salt."

  
Sometimes James felt dubious about whether putting up with Thomas' superstitions was worth it, but in the end he always came to the conclusion that the man was worth anything.

  
He headed out to buy salt with Thomas' card, and a nice lunch as well. He deserved a treat, as stressful as move in was turning out to be.


	2. Chapter 2

In the dreams, Thomas was always the same age as the day it happened, though in reality he had aged much in the decade since then.

  
The woods were always clear and bright, and Alexander was always right there beside him.

  
"Do you hear that? Come on Jefferson! Let's go explore!"

  
Thomas always woke up crying.


	3. Chapter 3

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

  
"Did you salt all the doors and windows?" His hands twisted an expensive silk handkerchief as he asked. Madison found it cute, truthfully.

  
"Yes, Thomas."

  
All except the one in the bathroom, which was very high up and didn't even open, as far as James could discern.

  
"The faucet's leaking, we need to get that checked on. It's keeping me up."

  
"I didn't notice any problems during the walk-through? Which one?"

  
"Kitchen."

  
Madison checked, going so far as to check the pipes in the cabinet beneath the sink, and turn the water on and back off several times.

  
"Nothing," he assured, "You must have been dreaming, is all. A change this big is bound to make you a little anxious. Let's order in for supper."


	4. Chapter 4

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

  
"It's a cave!" young Hamilton exclaimed, and Thomas woke up sick to his stomach.


	5. Chapter 5

"Are you sure the pipes aren't leaking?" Thomas' voice came anxiously from the other side of the phone, and even being interrupted at work couldn't make James feel more than bemused.

  
"I'm sure, Thomas, I've checked twice a week since we moved in, at least. I even asked the neighbors on either side, and neither complex is having any problems with their water. It's just in your head. Why don't you try and relax a little, I'll bring home ingredients for a stir fry.


	6. Chapter 6

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

  
Thomas plugged the sink, and watched the faucet carefully. It remained dry as a desert, but slowly the water rose. The sink filled to nearly overflowing, and when Thomas got the nerve to reach in and pull the plug, a small bony hand grabbed him.

  
He fought not to be pulled in; he had to get the sink drained. Water splashed to the floor as he thrashed. Surely there ought to have been some mark left from his struggle to free himself from the steel grip, but when James arrived home to find him shaking and half soaked, the sink empty and faucet still not dripping, there wasn't a bruise to be seen.


	7. Chapter 7

Thomas tried to shower quickly, but he could still see judgmental eyes staring at him from the fog in the bathroom mirror. He re-salted all the entries to the apartment, but he knew it was too late.


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you sure it's a good idea to swim in that, Hamilton?" In the dream, young Thomas' voice cracked embarrassingly on the word "swim," just like it had in real life. He prayed he'd wake up before--

  
"Thomas, help me!"

  
" _Alex!_ "


	9. Chapter 9

"Thomas, _Jesus_! Have you gotten any sleep at all?"

  
In response, Thomas nodded to a large map stuck to the table. Despite it's size, it seemed to be of a relatively small area; covering a few counties at most. A collection of woods was circled in bright red, and a handful of thumbtacks were all forcefully shoved into the same spot.

  
"They never found him," Thomas muttered, his voice creaking. "You don't hear that, do you?"

  
"Hear what? Thomas, you're not well."

  
" _Drip. Drip. Drip_. Just like the stalactites in the cave. _I could have saved him._ I should have tried. I always knew I couldn't run forever."

  
"Thomas, what are you talking about? Let's get you to bed, okay? Have you eaten anything?"

  
"He's coming for me."

  
"Who's coming for you?"

  
"He thinks I just stood there and let him drown. I can't swim, but I didn't even tell him that. He died thinking I didn't care."

  
Jefferson's eyes went from distant to wildly focused.

  
"I wouldn't have just let him! You know that, don't you? You have to believe me!"

  
James was too scared to ask anything more.


	10. Chapter 10

When he woke up the next morning, Thomas was gone like he'd never been there. When calling Thomas proved pointless, James contacted the Jefferson matriarch, desperately hoping she might know where to look.

  
"Is he there?!"

  
"Is who here? Who's speaking?"

  
"Madison-- James Madison. I've been dating your son for about a year, and--"

  
The dial tone sounded angry. James called again and left a message that never got returned.


	11. Chapter 11

Visiting the town Thomas grew up in, James was surprised to see how small it was. The map was carefully rolled up in his bag, but Madison had things to do first, before searching for some cave that probably wouldn't hold any answers. He asked a shop-keep about any drownings, but the gruff old man just huffed and hawed and said he didn't know about any tragedies since those two boys wandered off into the woods ages ago.

  
"Is there a grave?" James asked.

  
There were two.

  
They sat side by side, well kept in the quaint little cemetery.

  
"Alexander Hamilton," read one. "Thomas Jefferson," read the other. Beloved sons, each, and proclaimed dead the same date.

  
When the lake was dredged, two bodies were found, around the same age, and a ghostly pale Lady Jefferson demanded to know how he'd known where to find them.

  
James sat, suddenly dizzy, among two newly distraught mothers and a handful of police, not far outside the forest he'd previously only seen on a map. It was a sunny day.

  
"Thomas told me," he said, shock sinking him far far away from the exclamations of disbelief. "He said he couldn't swim."


End file.
